CubCrafters is the leading SLSA seller along with Flight Design. This move means the bulk of the fleet will all have BRS
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It’s a $14k option ($16K retrofit or $12K for kit builders).
With a 32 MPH stall speed it doesn’t strike me as an essential item unless you have a structural failure.
I’m building an EX-2 and don’t plan on adding it.
http://www.cubcrafters.com/news/99-cubcrafters-introduces-emergency-aircraft-parachutes
You won’t have a 32mph stall speed if you have a mid air collision and part of the airframe missing :)
I can’t see any information on how it is activated. Presumably it can be activated from either seat, but there are limited options for that with inline seating, unless you have one activation lever per person?
Are you building your EX-2 in the UK?
This is a pure sales thing. CC wondered if they could make money selling BRS. The answer was yes.
Also. You have to remember all the European LSA are developed from microlight with a BRS as a default option, mandatory in Germany. I imagine CC also could grow tired of people asking.
It will take another generation for the masses to accept BRS and ESP as a standard. It’s a mathematical certainty that if the entire GA fleet had both, fatal accidents would at least halve.
The average 12 hour a year pilot doesn’t have the skill to reliably land at any speed in a field, avoiding all obstacles, power management, wind direction, surface selection and so forth. If one can afford both, I would strongly recommend them but if one can’t, fair enough, the cost would pay for a lot of MoGas/AvGas.
DMEarc
DMEarc wrote:
average 12 hour a year pilot
High time pilots crash after a midair too. And get into trouble after a heart attack, at night over dark terrain, over water and when no suitable landing spot is around.
ortac wrote:
Are you building your EX-2 in the UK?
No. But I’ve been in communication with the LAA about registering it when I return to the UK.
Francis has flown the EX and has no real reservations and it is nominally the same aircraft that they sell as a Part 21 approved LSA.
The gross weight increase would need to be validated (from 1320 to 1865lb) but CC have documented testing of wing and fuselage to those limits.
It will still need a bit of extra work to get the first of type approved. Still it gives Francis an excuse to go flying!
It’s a mathematical certainty that if the entire GA fleet had both, fatal accidents would at least halve.
Would you be so kind and share the proof?
Using extracts from the following article, we can see the BRS equipped Cirrus has 1/2 the fatality rate of the GA average (when the chute is used)
https://www.cirruspilots.org/copa/safety_programs/w/safety_pages/721.cirrus-accident-rates.aspx
Past 12 months: 0.63
GA fleet: 1.40 overall
Therefore, we can see that the equipping and usage of the chute creates an inverse correlation to the fatality statistics.
Why do people still resist the concept?
DMEarc wrote:
people still resist the concept
Because they don’t fly with a chute and they didn’t train with one and have not had a crash – yet…. It’s about ‘it won’t happen to me’ syndrome.